Online Giants Step into the Real World

I guess the old adage of, "One step forward, two steps back," truly applies in this situation, where numerous previously online-only markets are now making their way to the streets by way of physical storefronts. However, this is actually a really cool business model that will allow customers to try out and touch a luxury product before returning home and purchasing it online at discounted rates. This just goes to show you that real-world experience with a product will always trump a handful of reviews that we might read online.

The benefits of online retail models are well documented. With a classic bootstrapping startup, low overheads and global reach were essential to my partner and I when we set up our online fashion business, LUX FIX. In fact, we probably would have had very little chance of making our mark in the highly competitive fashion retail sector were we not internet-based. So it has been particularly intriguing for us to see an apparent full circle occur in online retail, as e-tailers such as Net-A-Porter, Ebay and Etsy start to test offline presences in the form of showrooms and pop-up shops. Read More